Night 'Out' in St Giles - Eat, Drink and be Merry Venue Information
Updated: Mar 8
PHOTORUN SUMMARY
This St Giles route is a hidden gem for food, drink and entertainment between Covent Garden and Soho.
This short 'Concierge styled' overview video is designed to give you a flavour of the area, whilst the rest of this blog is focused on providing you with guidance and a 'tasting menu'.
Location of the Photorun
Eat, drink and be Merry Maps of St Giles
Eat, Drink and be Merry Theme Suggestions
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USEFUL RESOURCES WHEN DOING THE PHOTORUN
The Google map and the summary video are useful to have open when doing these Photoruns. They will help you remember what the route looks like and prevent you from getting lost.
There is also a Google map showing some of the places where you can get breakfast.
Photorun at Speed - (1.5 mins)
This short video gives a quick overview of the route and the sights and then shows you what the route would look like if you were running it at 25 mph.
SUPPORTING PHOTORUN INFORMATION
Food Links
Nothing brings people together like good food, so where do you go in this part of London that will cater to your taste and pocket and provide the ambience you want?
The art of finding and recommending the perfect place to eat can be tricky as there is so much variety in London, and tastes and budgets vary widely. To try and get around this, I have provided the most common links to help you find, select and book eating venues – just add the location into the search.
Open Table London – They pride themselves in bringing together people and the restaurants they love in the moments that matter, giving you dining options, experiences, and offers.
The Fork – This is a Tripadvisor company that relies as much on its communities of users as its communities of restaurateurs. You can search on price, cuisine, rating, and special offers.
Hardens – This is probably the UK's most comprehensive independent restaurant guide, with reviews written by its members. It ranks each place by its food, services and ambience and has extensive search capabilities.
Design My Night This site is designed to help you discover and unlock secret, new and unique city experiences, from events to bars and restaurants, but it is also a site to help plan and book online. It has categories for restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and 'what's on'.
Afternoon tea This is an Afternoon Tea guide to help you find the 'perfect venue for afternoon tea' in London and the UK. It provides descriptions, offers, booking facilities and an extensive search option.
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Drinking Locations
Special Google Maps
Pubs
Flying Horse – 6 Oxford Street
The Crown – 51 New Oxford Street – Sams Smiths – No local website
The Old Crown – 33 New Oxford Street – an area for karaoke – 1851
The White Hart 191 Drury Lane
The Sun – 21 Drury Lane
Philomena’s Irish Sports bar and Kitchen 40 Great Queen St
The Craft beer Company 168 High Holborn
The Cross Keys – 31 Endell St – Classic Pub – no website
The Crown and Anchor – 22 Neal Street
Crown – 43 Great Monmouth St
Two Brewers 40 Monmouth Street – Real ale pub
Freemasons Arms – 81-82 Long Acre – the FA met to discuss the rules of the game here in 1863
The Hercules Pillars 18 Great Queen st - Traditional English Pub
George – 8 Great Queen Street – no website
Bars
All Bar One New Oxford Street – 108 New Oxford Street
Flight Club Bloomsbury 55 New Oxford Street
Freud 198 Shaftesbury Avenue. Negroni
TSQ Playhouse – 166-170 Shaftesbury Avenue – creative cocktails
The Escapologist – 39 Earlham Street Cocktails and abba on Saturday
Lockes Bar – 32 Great Queen St
Sway Bar 61-65 Great Queen St
BrewDog Seven Dials Marquis of Granby, 142 Shaftesbury Avenue,
Craft Beer Co. 168 High Holborn
Phoenix Arts Club 1 Phoenix Street
The Angel- 61-62 Saint Giles High Street – north of TCR
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Things to do
St Giles Theatres
The Shaftesbury Theatre 210 Shaftesbury Avenue
The Ambassadors Theatre West Street
St Martin’s Theatre West Street
Cambridge Theatre Earlham Street
Nearby Theatres
Prince Edward Theatre Old Compton Street
Palace Theatre 113 Shaftesbury Avenue
Duke of York’s Theatre St Martins Lane
Noel Coward Theatre 85-88 St Martin’s Lane
Garrick Theatre 2 Charing Cross Road
Wyndham Theatre – Charing Cross Road by Leicester Square
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London Eat Drink and Be Merry Themes
The British celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal once said:
"To me, food is as much about the occasion, the location and the company as it is about the taste."
And since Photoruns is about exploring new things, you could also be adventurous and try new ways to discover menu items that are outside your comfort zone but will grow your palate.
So here are a few Photorun 'occasion' ideas that may help your 'eat, drink and be merry' London quest. Please let me know which one you like or if you have better ones.
Breakfast Lotto
When you do a photorun, seek out some breakfast locations and number them. Then select one at random and try it out. You can even do this with items on the breakfast menu and let chance dictate your selection - or some of them.
Foodie Vows
This is based on the victorian rhyme that symbolises luck for a bride on her wedding day, but in this version, it is to do with food and drink. You can do this for a whole meal or at a location or venue.
Something Old – have the food and drink that you know you will like.
Something New – try something that is new to you and that you want to try
Something Borrower – taste or drink something you have been recommended to try
Something Blue - Select something spontaneously - out of the blue. It's best to have a trigger for spontaneity, like a specific colour.
Tipple Tours
There are so many pubs and bars in London that you can easily create your tour based upon your favourite tipple, for example, a Negroni, Whisky or Guinness tour. The aim is to select a drink type, investigate the venues, and then have your favourite tipple in each of them. An alternative is to try out the different variations in just one venue!
Around the World in 8 Hours.
Phileas Fogg is the protagonist in the 1872 Jules Verne novel "Around the World in Eighty Days", where he visited eleven nations to complete his adventure. The aim is to map an 'around the world' route and have something to eat or drink that comes (or is connected to) each of your destinations - in the proper order. Top marks if you match Phileas Fogg's eleven places.
Letters from London
The objective is to choose a letter, word or name and visit venues with the letter(s) in the correct order. Alternatively, you can select based on your menu and drink choices.
Horses for courses
As the name suggests, this is about discovering the best place for each course for your perfect meal - which could be three courses or more if you include the drinks before, during and after.
Groundhog Food Tours
This is a take on the film Groundhog Day, but this time it is about having your favourite menu item each day at different venues, so you can compare and contrast the same dish and then rank them.